Jesus, the Bread of Life

[0:00] I wonder if I were to ask you if you could recall what you think is one of the greatest miracles of Jesus.! Hopefully you'd be able to do that.

[0:10] There are some people who would have a hard time doing that. I was looking at a survey recently by George Barnard, and some of the questions they asked people to check biblical literacy.

[0:24] And one of the questions they asked was, who was Sodom and Gomorrah? To tell what Sodom and Gomorrah is about, there were people who thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.

[0:37] And so that person probably could not recall one of these miracles of Jesus. But I imagine if I were to go around the room this morning, among the miracles that you could recall would be the feeding of the 5,000.

[0:51] It's one of the, perhaps when you consider the reaction of the crowd, it may be the most outstanding miracle that Jesus performed based on the reaction of the crowd.

[1:05] This is found in John's Gospel, Chapter 6. And what you find is when Jesus fed the 5,000, John tells us in verse 15 of Chapter 6 that people were going to make him king by force.

[1:20] I mean, they thought if there's someone who could multiply bread and fish every time we want it, that person needs to be king. So they were going to make him king by force.

[1:33] But Scripture says that Jesus withdrew. I think many of us would have loved that. A lot of our politicians would love that, that people want to make you king by force.

[1:44] But Jesus withdrew. And John goes on to tell us that the crowd pursued him and they found him the next day. They found him across the sea.

[1:55] He had taken a boat and gone over. Or had just gone over. But they found Jesus and they began to converse with him. And they said to him, well, when did you get here?

[2:07] And Jesus understood what was going on. Jesus understood why they pursued him. And he ignored their question. And he makes this startling statement to them in John 6, starting in verse 26.

[2:22] Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

[2:34] Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God has set his seal.

[2:46] For on him God has set his seal.

[3:16] He explained the meaning of the 5,000, the feeding of the 5,000 to them. And he begins doing so in verse 35, where our text for this morning's sermon begins.

[3:28] And as we consider this passage this morning, let's listen attentively, because what Jesus explained to the Jews, he has also explained for us.

[3:38] So if you have not yet done so, please turn to John's Gospel, chapter 6. We begin in verse 35.

[3:50] Please follow along as I read. I'm reading from the English Standard Version. If you have another translation, yours will read slightly differently. John chapter 6, starting in verse 35.

[4:06] Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

[4:17] But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

[4:33] For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

[4:48] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day.

[5:02] So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

[5:14] How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

[5:34] It is written in the prophets, and they will be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God.

[5:48] He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

[6:03] This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the bread, the living bread, that came down from heaven.

[6:16] If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

[6:32] So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

[6:45] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

[7:00] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

[7:16] This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

[7:29] Jesus said these things in this synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. Let's pray together. Father, we are so grateful this morning for the privilege to gather.

[7:41] Father, thank you, Lord, for the ways you have spoken to our hearts already, and we now ask that you would speak to our hearts from your word. I pray, Lord, that you would grant me abundant grace to be faithful and to care for these who are gathered.

[7:59] Lord, would you cause each one to hear as he or she ought to hear. And then, Lord, cause us by your Spirit to respond to your word as you would have us to.

[8:11] We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Although the passage that we just read is quite long, I believe a faithful summary of it is, as the bread of life, Jesus alone satisfies, and Jesus alone saves.

[8:32] I believe that is the truth that we can distill out of the verses that we read, that as the bread of life, Jesus alone satisfies, and Jesus alone saves.

[8:47] These are the two themes that run through this conversation between Jesus and the crowd. The themes of satisfaction and salvation. And so if we want to think about it in terms of questions this morning, the two questions being considered and answered in this passage are, how do we find true satisfaction?

[9:08] And how do we gain eternal life? Those are the two questions that are being considered and answered in this passage. The issue of finding true satisfaction, the issue of gaining eternal life.

[9:24] And so this morning, I pray through the illumination of the Spirit that we'll all be able to see that the answer to both of these questions is the same. And that answer is by coming to and believing in Jesus Christ.

[9:39] Now in our remaining time, I want to consider two very simple points that are loudly proclaimed in this passage. And they are, the first one is, Jesus alone satisfies.

[9:52] Jesus alone satisfies. A few years ago, I purchased a book about bread making. The title of the book is a single word, bread.

[10:06] And the subtitle is Breads of the World and How to Bake Them at Home. And it's quite a large book, 250 pages, and it's filled with full color pictures of all these breads from around the world that you could make at home.

[10:23] I know those of you who know me know that anything to do with the kitchen, the most I do in the kitchen is I wash dishes. I can't cook, and I think baking is a bit more complex, so I don't bake.

[10:34] So when I bought the book, I had other people in mind, not myself, for that book. And since buying that book, each time I read this account in John chapter 6, my mind goes back to bread, and I love bread.

[10:52] And I must confess this morning, when I've done this in the past, people were kind to send me bread. That's not why I'm doing it this morning. I'm not doing it to get bread, but if bread comes, I welcome bread.

[11:07] But one of the things about this book is there's an introduction, and it actually has the history of bread, at least from the author's perspective. I found it to be quite interesting.

[11:20] And here's what the author writes in the introduction to this book on bread. Bread seems to be a recurring theme in history. Most people could be forgiven for thinking that history was driven by great scientists and ambitious men.

[11:37] But look closer, and you will find that the incentive behind many of our greatest inventions was the availability, production, and delivery of food, our daily bread in the widest terms.

[11:53] The wheel, the plow, the windmill, right through to steam and motorization, all plot a course that was concerned specifically with agriculture and producing food.

[12:06] Similarly, the aspirations of any king or queen were intimately connected with feeding, with the feeding of their people. The poorer and hungrier the population, the more insecure was the ruler's position.

[12:22] Give them bread and circuses, said juvenile in the first century AD, referring to the Roman mob in a state of constant unrest because of poverty and starvation.

[12:34] And Queen Marie Antoinette famously said, let them eat cake on being told that the peasants were rioting because they had no bread. And then the last sentence of this introduction to the history of bread makes a very insightful observation, and it's this.

[12:55] Almost all revolutions came about because of famine. And bread was the single food that might alone have averted such an event.

[13:10] With that brief history about bread, I think it's quite easy to see how important bread would have been during the time of the earthly ministry of Jesus. It would have been incredibly important.

[13:24] Earlier in this account that we read in John chapter 6 in verse 33, and you can look there if you'd like, in John 6 verse 33, Jesus told the Jews, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

[13:46] So Jesus told the Jews that the bread of God was a person. And Jesus referred to the bread of God as he. And the Jews missed it.

[13:56] And even though Jesus referred to the bread of God as a person, the Jews missed it. And what they said in verse 34 is, Sir, give us this bread always. And that's where Jesus begins to respond to them, to explain to them, to help them to understand what he's talking about.

[14:14] And that's where we began this morning in our text. Jesus responds to them in verse 35 in the plainest language and he says to them, I am the bread of life.

[14:27] He said to them, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven. They thought still it was some kind of special variety of bread. And so Jesus plainly says to them, listen, I am the bread.

[14:39] I am the bread of life who comes down from heaven. He says, whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

[14:50] Now it should be clear from this point in the conversation that Jesus is pointing to spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst that our regular food and drink cannot satisfy.

[15:06] And really this is the point of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. It was to point to Jesus himself. But the crowd missed it. And what's interesting is that although the crowd knew the account of the children of Israel receiving manna in the desert, they missed the reason behind that entire event as well.

[15:29] But scripture gives us the reason behind that entire event in Deuteronomy chapter 8. You don't need to turn there. It should be projected for you. In Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 1 through 3 we read, the whole commandment that I command you this day you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.

[15:57] And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you testing you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not.

[16:13] He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

[16:33] Notice in verse 3 we are told that God allowed them to hunger and he fed them with manna to teach them an important lesson and the important lesson is that man not just Israel this was not just a lesson God was teaching to his covenant people as they traversed the desert this was a lesson that God was teaching to man and that includes all of us he was teaching them that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

[17:07] In other words their physical hunger and their physical need for bread to sustain their physical life were to help them to see their spiritual hunger and their spiritual need for spiritual food for spiritual life that only God could give.

[17:24] It was to tell them you will not live if you only receive physical bread. That was the point of the manna in heaven and even as Jesus in a sense would renew that miracle as he multiplied five barley loaves and two small fish and he fed this vast multitude the whole point was to teach them that they needed more than physical sustenance they needed something beyond that.

[17:53] And friends this morning the lesson for us is the same. It is the same reality that we face that they face. It is the same reality for all human beings.

[18:05] Physical hunger and physical thirst again and again point to the ongoing hunger and thirst in our souls that only God satisfies.

[18:17] And he satisfies it through his son whom he sent into the world as the savior of the world. And all other substitutes to satisfy our spiritual hunger and our spiritual thirst will fail us.

[18:29] We eat those substitutes and we are never filled. We eat those substitutes and we are never satisfied. satisfied. It is like eating a big bag of potato chips when we need a real meal and the empty calories leave us feeling dissatisfied.

[18:49] And so as we sometimes do with junk food when we crave real food some people seek to fill the hunger in their souls. The hunger in their souls for God they try to fill it with substitutes.

[19:02] They pursue the substitutes of wealth and materialism and success and personal achievements. They pursue relationships and sex and alcohol and drugs and education and recreation and entertainment and hobbies and all manner of things.

[19:21] And in the end they are still spiritually empty and still spiritually unsatisfied. Some people even pursue religion. religion. And by religion I mean engaging in spiritual activities without having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

[19:40] So some people pursue religious activities like regular church attendance and perhaps even reading their Bible and perhaps even religiously praying every day and these are not bad things in and of themselves but away from a vital relationship with Jesus Christ.

[19:55] These are just substitutes trying to fill the void in the human heart. And so spiritual hunger is more important than physical hunger.

[20:12] It is actually the hunger that is in view behind physical hunger. And the miraculous provision of bread to meet that hunger points to Jesus who alone can satisfy spiritual hunger.

[20:26] hunger. Jesus recognizes this spiritual hunger by identifying himself as the bread of life and saying I am the only one who can satisfy this hunger.

[20:41] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst. In other words, Jesus alone satisfies. satisfies. But this picture between Jesus and the crowd really paints a sad picture.

[20:58] Because the crowd was seeking Jesus for that which could never satisfy their souls. They were seeking physical food while rejecting the spiritual food that he offered and that would eternally satisfy.

[21:14] And this is no doubt true of many people today. And perhaps true for some of us today. Some of us who are present. Like the crowd was seeking Jesus but it's for the things he can do for us.

[21:30] The things we want him to do for us. And perhaps you're here this morning and you know that you're away from God. You know that Jesus is not your Savior and your Lord.

[21:42] Lord. But you're seeking him perhaps for a job. Perhaps because you want him to fix some situation in your life. Perhaps a relationship that is on the rocks.

[21:55] Perhaps you want him to bless your business or your career. Or maybe to pass an important exam on your BGCSEs. Or perhaps to get that much needed scholarship.

[22:06] And the list goes on. For all the reasons we come to Jesus and we are seeking to extract from him what we think we really need. And we overlook or even reject the very thing that he in himself offers to us.

[22:24] And that is satisfaction for our souls. From these words of Jesus, I am the bread of life. we know that Jesus satisfies the deep longing and emptiness in our hearts that is rooted in our separation from God.

[22:47] Now when we consider this, we consider this account, it really raises a very important question. Why do spiritually hungry and thirsty people not come to Jesus to meet their spiritual hunger and to quench their spiritual thirst?

[23:07] Even like those in the crowd who were in his very presence. Why is it that they would go to Jesus for all other things but not for spiritual sustenance?

[23:20] Jesus. But I think Jesus points to the sobering reality, this sobering reality in verse 36. Look at what he says. Right after saying to them that he is the bread of life, and whoever comes to him shall not hunger and whoever believes in him will never thirst.

[23:38] He says this, But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. They saw Jesus, yet they did not believe.

[23:51] It's like putting a home cooked meal in front of a little child who is craving ice cream. He refuses to eat, and he continues to scream for ice cream.

[24:01] I want ice cream. Now why is this? Why would the spiritually hungry not take the spiritual food that Jesus offers?

[24:15] I think the answer to the question is connected to my second point, so rather than answer it at this particular point, I'll move on, and we'll answer it later. So my first point this morning is, as the bread of life, Jesus alone satisfies.

[24:32] And my second point is, as the bread of life, Jesus alone saves. As the bread of life, number one, Jesus alone satisfies.

[24:43] Number two, Jesus alone saves. From this passage, we're able to see that the satisfaction that Jesus promises is connected to the salvation that Jesus offers.

[24:59] The satisfaction that he promises is connected to the salvation that he offers. believers. And there's no doubt that Jesus promises satisfaction for the spiritual longings in our hearts for those who come to him and believe in him.

[25:14] And the larger promise that Jesus makes is the promise of salvation that he alone will give to those who come to him. And in this account, in John's gospel that we are considering this morning, Jesus refers to and promises eternal life 14 different times.

[25:37] Four times he uses the words eternal life. And then other times he uses words like life or live forever or not die. Or he simply promises to raise from the dead on the last day those who believe in him.

[25:54] And here in this passage, Jesus gives four promises of the resurrection on the last day. Look at the first promise that Jesus gives.

[26:06] We didn't read this earlier, but it's in verse 27. In John 6 and verse 27. Jesus says to them, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

[26:28] For on him, God the Father has set his seal. Jesus says he is the Son, and he, the Son, will give eternal life, and God the Father has set his seal upon him as being genuine, as being able to give this eternal life.

[26:50] All of the sources that promise eternal life do not have the Father's seal. They do not have the Father's approval. Jesus alone has this seal as being genuine and being able to give this eternal life.

[27:05] So Jesus is now telling us that separation from God has only made us spiritual, has not only made us spiritually hungry, but it actually has made us spiritually dead.

[27:18] And friends, this morning in this passage before us, we find the most explicit language in Scripture about the hopeless inability of human beings to come to Jesus for spiritual satisfaction and the true salvation that they need.

[27:40] In other passages of Scripture, like Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, we read, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

[27:54] And we can conclude that a spiritually dead person can do nothing for himself. But here in this passage in John 6, Jesus speaks with even plainer words.

[28:10] Again, notice the claim that Jesus makes in verse 35. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

[28:22] Again, Jesus makes a startling claim as we consider verse 36. He says, But I said to you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe.

[28:39] These individuals watch Jesus take five barley loaves and two fish and feed a multitude, 5,000 men besides women and children.

[28:49] They are having this conversation with him, and yet they don't believe. And when you think about that in terms of us, we are even further removed.

[29:04] But they are in his very presence. They observed his miracle, and he says to them who he is and what he is able to do, and yet he says to them, I told you all this, you do not believe.

[29:17] Jesus was not put off by their unbelief. And I think there are two reasons, well, one reason stated two different times in two verses why Jesus was not put off.

[29:31] And I want us to see it in verse 37. Look at John 6, verse 37. Jesus says this, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

[29:48] Look at verse 44. Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

[30:02] So in the face of this unbelieving crowd, Jesus understands and underscores two realities. First, that there are specific people whom the Father gives him in salvation, and they will come to him.

[30:17] And the second is that no human is capable of coming to him unless God the Father draws him or her. Friends, these are two earth-shaking realities.

[30:34] Despite the unbelief of the crowd, Jesus expresses his assurance that there are people whom the Father has given to him, and he is confident that they will come to him.

[30:44] And he promises that he will never cast them out. He promises to keep and to hold them for all eternity. And Jesus is saying that unless God the Father intervenes and acts on human hearts and draws them, our spiritual condition is such that we cannot come to him, and therefore we will not come to him for eternal life.

[31:08] And that is true even for those who would have observed the miracle, partaken of that miracle, discoursed with Jesus, and still not believe. And like them, we may come to Jesus with our short-sighted desires that they would be fulfilled, but we will have no spiritual interest in Jesus for eternal life unless God the Father acts in mercy on our hearts to open our eyes, to help us to see the Savior, and to bring us to him.

[31:47] And that is because our hearts are so darkened and so hardened that left to ourselves. We have no interest in what Jesus offers and what we truly need.

[32:03] Ours is a very narrow, selfish interest going to him for what we think we need and what we think he offers. But God, in mercy and grace, through the power of the Holy Spirit, draws men and women, boys and girls like that, who left to themselves, have no interest in spiritual things.

[32:28] In mercy, he has done that. And for those of us this morning who have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we should know this morning that we did not find God, but God in mercy found us.

[32:42] We should know this morning that we have not trusted in Christ because we are smart or wise or righteous and holy. We have found Christ because God has in mercy opened our eyes and we have seen him as more than someone who will dole out the requests that we make.

[33:02] He found us dead in sin and dead in trespasses and deaf to spiritual reality and blind to spiritual reality and he gave us life. He gave us spiritual life and opened blinded eyes and deaf ears.

[33:17] And through the good news of the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to live a life that sinners could never live and to pay the penalty for their sins so that those who would put their faith in him, those who would repent, God would pardon and he would extend saving grace and mercy to them.

[33:45] And so if you are here this morning and you know that your sins have been forgiven, you know that it is well with your soul, you have every reason to rejoice this morning. Because without the mercy and grace of God, you would be like the crowd talking to the bread of life, partaking of his goodness and yet have no interest in the true life that he offers.

[34:10] That is the lot of all of us this morning who have put our trust in Jesus Christ and we need to be grateful and we need to be thankful in our hearts that God in mercy saved us and brought us to himself.

[34:26] And for those of you this morning who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, if you will come to know him, you will need God likewise to act in mercy and grace and bring you to Christ because left to yourself you have no interest, left to yourself you have no desire for the life that he offers.

[34:54] Notice what Jesus says in verse 45. Jesus says this, he says, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Everyone without exception.

[35:08] And I say this to you this morning, if you are here and you know that it is not well with your soul, you know that you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I say to you that you are not here by accident, God enabled you to be here to bring you face to face with the need that you have.

[35:26] And that need is for the spiritual life and the spiritual satisfaction and the salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ to be made available to you through the Holy Spirit.

[35:45] Look at verse 47. In verse 47, Jesus makes a very startling statement.

[36:01] As he told the Jews that he would offer himself, he said, the bread that I give, the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.

[36:15] but I'm getting ahead of myself. In verse 47, he says this, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna and the wilderness and died.

[36:30] This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

[36:41] And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Friends, this is a solemn promise from the Lord Jesus that whoever believes has eternal life.

[36:58] If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Here in verse 47, we see Jesus using similar language to what he used in verse 35.

[37:08] He says, whoever believes, whoever believes. What does it mean to believe? One of the remarkable things about coming to the Bahamas for our friends who come from the U.S.

[37:26] in particular is that when they go out into the community and they talk to people, almost everyone they talk to would say, I believe in Jesus. What does it mean to believe?

[37:40] Well, in the context of the passage that we are reading, believing is eating. Believing is feasting on Jesus both for spiritual satisfaction in this life and for eternal life in the world to come.

[37:59] Let me try to illustrate the difference between truly believing and the believing that we tend to get when we ask people if they believe in Jesus or if they believe in God.

[38:15] I'm sure perhaps most of you, even if you don't like bread, you love to smell bread. It's just the smell of bread. And I remember when I worked downtown on Frederick Street, my route every evening driving home was on Market Street past Purity Bakery.

[38:34] And I think most of you who were in that vicinity, you would know that the minute you get by the central bank, you would smell the bread. Of course, that bread smells better than it tastes, but that's another story.

[38:46] But you're driving by and you smell the aroma of the bread. Even with your windows up, you smell the aroma of the bread.

[38:57] I can still remember being charmed by the aroma of that bread. But you know what? Eating bread is light years beyond smelling bread.

[39:12] smelling in terms of believing is not believing.

[39:24] Eating in terms of believing is believing. See, for most people, their belief in Jesus is like smelling bread. They're enthralled with it, they like it, and they can say wonderful things about it, but the test of their belief is whether they will taste.

[39:44] The test of their belief is whether they will eat. And I think we're reminded of the scripture, taste and see that the Lord is good. Not smell and see, but taste and see.

[39:58] And so this eating is more than a head knowledge that basically agrees with all the historical facts about the life of Jesus and who he was and what he did.

[40:12] Those who truly believe have come to a place of surrendering and trusting and looking to Jesus to satisfy their deepest needs and longings and to save them from the wrath to come.

[40:24] Those who are just smelling Jesus have not trusted in him. They have not come to rely on him. They have not submitted their lives to him. They're not living for him. They're not trusting in him to save them from the coming wrath.

[40:39] Many are trusting in the fact that they don't do some of the bad things that other people do. Many have bought into what I would call the theology of sideburns.

[40:52] Have you ever noticed that anyone of prominence who dies, when sideburns puts them in his karmic thing, they all go to heaven. And they do in heaven whatever they were doing on earth.

[41:06] that sideburn theology. That's not biblical theology. It is a tasting of Jesus.

[41:17] It is a feasting on Jesus. It is a believing on Jesus that gives us eternal life with him. Not the fragrance of him. Not hanging around him. But believing and trusting.

[41:31] In verse 51, Jesus says, the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. And these words were given, these words were a promise given to the crowd.

[41:46] But these words now, friends, are a promise that's been fulfilled. Jesus has now gone to Calvary. Jesus has now given his life.

[41:57] He has now given his life for the salvation of all believing sinners. In verse 52, we see that there arose a dispute among the Jews.

[42:11] And they began to dispute, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Notice Jesus' response to their dispute starting in verse 53.

[42:22] Jesus says to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

[42:38] For my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

[42:48] As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

[43:00] This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the Father's ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus obviously is speaking figuratively.

[43:15] He's referring to himself and his atoning death that he would soon accomplish. And to truly believe in Jesus is figuratively referred to as eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

[43:30] Now this is not talking about communion or the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist although there are some parallels to it. What Jesus is simply saying to us is that we need to spiritually feast on him for spiritual life in the same way that we feast on physical food to satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst in an ongoing way.

[43:58] The same way we approach our food and our drink and trust them to sustain us for physical life we must similarly trust in Jesus to give us spiritual life.

[44:11] Just think about it. If you decided that you would refuse physical food you just weren't going to eat. If you do that you would die. and if we refuse the spiritual food that Jesus offers the food that he offers that God has put his seal of approval on to say he is the only one who offers this food if we reject that food then we will die spiritually because we will not receive the eternal life that he offers.

[44:47] And we should see that in the same way that we eat physical food in an ongoing way we need to feast on Christ continuing to trust him wholly and fully in an ongoing way.

[45:05] Friends there is a very obvious implication from this passage and from this message this morning for those of you who have not surrendered your life to Jesus Christ.

[45:18] Jesus alone satisfies and Jesus alone saves. You ought to be mindful this morning that you cannot come to Jesus without the help of God.

[45:37] And I encourage you this morning in recognition of that if you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and personal Savior to ask the Lord to have mercy. mercy to cry out to God that he would have mercy on you and bring you to Jesus for the spiritual satisfaction in this life and for eternal life in the life to come.

[46:02] You can pray that prayer right where you're seated. You can pray that prayer at home and certainly if you would want to talk with someone or to have someone to pray with you after our gathering this morning I and others will be here to pray with you.

[46:17] Let's pray together.